Biotech Patents Archives

March 18, 2020

Team of inventors wearing white lab coats in a laboratory.

March 18, 2020

Federal Court Removes Inventors from Four Patents

2020 FC 338 – The Court concluded that the six individuals were listed as inventors “by inadvertence in the process of the division.”

October 4, 2019

Stethoscope and a smartphone. Healthcare

October 4, 2019

Disruptions to the Healthcare Industry: 5 Takeaways From the 2019 Waterloo Innovation Summit

At the 2019 Waterloo Innovation Summit, global thought leaders discussed oncoming disruptions to healthcare and challenges faced by healthtech start-ups.

July 2, 2019

Vials containing pharmaceuticals (drugs)

July 2, 2019

Oxymorphone Patent Is Not Obvious, Federal Circuit Confirms

CAFC confirms that an invention is only obvious and ineligible for a patent where a skilled person would have had a “reasonable expectation of success.”

November 23, 2016

FC Invalidates Selection Patent as Obvious in View of Genus Patent

2015 FC 247 - The Federal Court reminds us that a selection patent will typically require something more than routine testing to justify the reclaiming of a particular compound within a previously known class of compounds.

October 6, 2016

Pharmaceutical Patentees Could Face More than 100% of Actual Damages under PM(NOC) Regulations

2014 FCA 68 - Innovator pharmaceutical companies should be cautious and think twice about how aggressively they defend their patents as they could potentially face paying more than 100% of actual damages as an award under section 8 of the PM(NOC) Regulations.

October 5, 2016

“More or Less Self-evident” Remains the Standard in the Obvious-to-Try Test

2015 FCA 286 - An attack on the Federal Court’s slight rewording of the obvious-to-try test has proven unsuccessful. The FC referring to a 'fair expectation of success'" was not a reviewable error.

October 3, 2016

Careful Patent Drafting Saves Novartis’s EXJADE Patent Despite Two Distinct Promises

2016 FCA 230 - The FCA found that the EXJADE patent was drafted so as to make an important distinction between the utilities of the Formula I and Formula II compounds, and thereby held the Formula II claims to a lesser promise, and dismissed Teva’s allegations of inutility.

April 22, 2016

Gilead Successfully Invalidates Patent Jeopardizing Its Sovaldi Product

2015 FC 1156 - The FC found that Idenix’s patent was invalid for a lack of utility, demonstrated or soundly predicted, and for insufficient disclosure.

April 5, 2016

Strike Two: Second Prohibition Application Regarding Mylan’s Proposed Tadalafil Tablets Denied

2015 FC 125 - The existing patent was invalid on the grounds of lack of utility for having made a promise of utility that could not be demonstrated nor soundly predicted, was anticipated by a previous patent of the applicant that claimed an overlapping dosage range, and was also therefore made obvious by the same previous patent.

February 17, 2016

Data Protection Provisions Block Post-Filing NDS Amendments for Generic Drug

2015 FC 1205 - A quirk in the PM(NOC) rules was resolved that could make the entry of generics into the market even slower if the generic tries to make post-filing amendments to its application.